The battle over oil and gas leasing on public lands in the West is being most fiercely fought in Colorado, where in the past five years, nine of every 10 acres offered for drilling have been protested.

In 2012, proposed lease acreage in Colorado drew formal challenges, called protests, at a far greater rate than that of three neighboring states, according to federal Bureau of Land Management data.

The BLM, which oversees public- lands oil and gas leasing, is set to hold its largest Colorado sale in four years — for 109,000 acres spread across the state — on Feb. 14. It has received 175 protests.

The volleys of protest from communities, wildlife officials and environmental groups are sparked, they say, by an inadequate analysis of drilling impacts in the state and insufficient protection of public lands.

For the agency and the oil-and-gas industry, the battle has bogged down the process of making land — as required by law — available for development in Colorado.

"The question is: Who should get the benefits of public lands?" said Nada Culver, an attorney with the Wilderness Society. "Is it the public or private companies?"

The BLM has a mandate to manage public lands for multiple uses, including mining, grazing and drilling, said Helen Hankins, the Colorado BLM director.

In 2012, oil and gas lease bonuses, royalties and rentals generated $158 million for state coffers, according to the BLM.

"There are a few things we do that are white hat and everyone likes, but there are a lot of things we do where there are often very polar views," Hankins said.

For the oil-and-gas industry, the battle is a huge barrier, said David Ludlam, executive director of the West Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association, a trade group.

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Laboring under natural-gas prices that hit a 10-year low last April, the number of well starts in the six biggest western Colorado oil-and-gas counties dropped 75 percent between 2008 and 2012 to 566, according to state figures.

Federal lands cover more than 20 million acres of western Colorado. "If we don't have access to public lands, we don't have many options," Ludlam said.

The reasons for the pitched battle in Colorado are complex, say BLM officials, environmental groups, and oil-and-gas industry representatives.

With 5.2 million people, Colorado is the most populous Rocky Mountain state. It has industries such as tourism and real estate that may be in competition with the oil industry.

"When you have the prospect of oil and gas development of federal lands and federal minerals, the more people that are near to it, the more likely you are to have controversy," said Steven Hall, a BLM spokesman.

In 2010, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued oil and gas leasing reforms aimed at getting public input and problems resolved early in the process to avoid protests and lawsuits.

The portion of protested acres in New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming has dropped since 2009 by two-thirds to 27 percent, according to agency data.

Those reforms, however, are late in coming to Colorado, said Suzanne O'Neill, director of the Colorado Wildlife Federation.

"There seems to be an unwillingness to adopt key reforms," O'Neill said.

BLM Colorado State Director Helen Hankins. (The Denver Post)

The problem has been compounded by the fact that Colorado is using the most dated planning documents in the West, critics say.

The plans that the Colorado BLM uses to evaluate parcels are, on average, more than 20 years old — twice as old as in other Western states, according to a Wilderness Society analysis.

Parcels are nominated for lease by oil and gas operators and then reviewed by the BLM. Drilling might not be permitted in sensitive wildlife habitat or key watersheds, for example. Approved acres are offered at one of the BLM's quarterly sales.

Many of the protests of the February sale argue that land use, drilling techniques and scientific knowledge have changed in the past two decades. They are calling for a halt to leasing until new plans are completed.

The BLM is creating eight new plans that cover almost all of Colorado west of the Rocky Mountains.

"If we ceased activity on every part of Colorado we are doing planning, you could see it would be a problem," said Colorado BLM's Hankins.

Colorado BLM is trying to incorporate some of the reforms in the plans it is doing, but it can't take on additional work, Hankins said.

"The short answer is that we've got more planning going in Colorado than four or five other states combined," Hankins said. "We are pretty maxed out."

Park County officials asked for one of the reforms — a master leasing plan — and were turned down, said county administrator Tom Eisenman.

"They said there wasn't enough oil and gas development interest to merit a plan. Then they put up parcels in the county for sale," he said. "It was counterintuitive."

Park County protested those parcels, and the BLM has deferred them from the February sale until a later date.

When the Park County land is re-evaluated, a master leasing plan will be part of the exercise, Hankins said.

Lease-sale parcels were also deferred in the area near Dinosaur National Monument, in Moffat County, after protests by the Wilderness Society and the National Parks Conservation Association.

The protests showed that the BLM still needs to complete some surveys on potential wild lands in the area, Hankins said.

"We do review the protests and take them seriously," Hankins said.

Parcels were also deferred from the North Fork Valley in response to criticism that they were on steep slopes or too near a school, water supplies or public land being considered for recreational use.

"It is nice that they addressed some of the concerns we raised," said Jim Ramey, director of Paonia-based Citizens for a Healthy Community, which opposes leasing in the North Fork.

"But the fundamental problem remains that they are making decisions based on old documents that don't reflect what is happening in Colorado," Ramey said.

Protests and lawsuits made after lease sales are made will probably remain a fixture in Colorado.

One of the most controversial sales was on the Roan Plateau in Garfield County in 2008. It has been in federal court since.

In June, a federal judge ruled that the BLM had failed to address impacts and alternatives, and in January the agency said it would do a new environmental-impact statement.

"When it comes to leasing public lands, all the issues come together in Colorado," said Michael Saul, an attorney who represented the National Wildlife Federation in the Roan suit.